Distribution and Ecology - In rocky campo and on moist stony stream-banks on and near the crest of the coastal Cordillera of extratropical Brazil in lat. 25°30'-29°S, in scattered stations from far e. Paraná (Morretes) to s.-e. Sta. Catarina and immediately adj. Rio Grande do Sul (but see discussion immediately following).—Fl. IX-IV.

Discussion:

Lins (1984) recorded the fresh filaments of this remarkable minosa as pink and the outer involucroid bracts of the capitulum whitish or yellowish when fresh, but deciduous. As she has remarked (l.c.), the capitula, which resemble superficially those of some Compositae, are indeed unique in sect. Calothamnos and the prostrate habit is matched only in M. lepidorepens.

A specimen labelled "São Paulo" (Gaudichaud 8431, BM) may in reality be part of a Sello gathering from further south. A second, Glaziou 8431 (P), said to be from Serra do Mar in far southwestern Rio de Janeiro ("haut de la Serra do Ariro [Arire].-Bel arbuste, fl. jaunes."), may be another case of spurious locality data and actually collected by Mosén or Puiggari far to the southwest of Rio (cf. Wurdack, Taxon 19: 911. 1970). At the very least these intratropical localities require modem confirmation.